READER – WRITER – RESOURCES – & MORE

Meet Guest Blogger Colline Kook-Chun

I began my blog, simply titled“Colline’s Blog”, on 1 January 2012 as part of my new year’s resolution “to write more on any topic that I have chosen”. I had previously written academic essays, product descriptions and blogged for 8 months on a blog that focused on health. I found all these avenues of writing constrictive as I was limited in my subject matter. I wished to write about whatever came to mind – hence the tagline for my blog: “A potpourri of thoughts and experiences”. My aim was to blog about health, share recipes, a photo here and there, and write about anything that inspired me.

During my first year blogging on my new space, I discovered the beauty of writing prompts and what is called free writing. Whenever I had dabbled in creative writing before, I had been discouraged by the expectation of writing a story outline, doing character sketches and writing a description of the plot. After my discovery of free writing, I find I enjoy putting words on the computer screen in five minutes – or even typing until I run out of steam. The words seem to flow from my fingers and I am often surprised by what I have created. I have grown to love the writing that I do for my blog – and miss it when the responsibilities of my day job prevent me from logging in.

During the day on week days, I am a school teacher. Currently I am teaching kindergarten in the French Immersion programme. The rest of the time I am a wife to a wonderful husband and am blessed to be the mother to two beautiful growing girls. For entertainment I read (I was called a bookworm when a child), and enjoy watching movies at home with my family. One of our favourite things to do is eat together and sit around the table talking. We have been known to sit at the table (my husband, children, and I) and talk for up to two hours.

My blog posts are influenced by what I have done with my family (especially when I share the photos I have taken in the Weekly Photo Challenges), books I have read and films I have seen, my personal experiences, my teaching, as well as my attempts at creative writing. I would like to share with you one of the stories I have written in response to a writing prompt in January 2013:

“I looked across the green landscape and I felt a sense of peace and healing. Gone were the cries of the hurt and hungry. Gone were the buildings that had been torn asunder by bombs and hatred. Gone was the rat-tat-tat of machine guns and the fear of death. I pushed away the images of pain and desperation and breathed in the tranquillity of the scene before me. The living grasses and field flowers soothed my soul and quietened the anxiety I had been carrying inside for so long. I closed my eyes and breathed in the clean fresh air. The risen sun warmed me – both inside and out.

Hefting my bag onto my shoulder, I continued limping slowly in the fields of grass and healing. I could have taken a cab from the station to reach home within half an hour. But I knew that I needed this walk in the sweetness of God’s creation and the bitter-sweet memories of my childhood. How carefree we had been when running across these fields. Our gaiety had known no bounds; and our friendship had known no obstacle. Our friendship had stood fast in the face of family disputes, girls, and religious disagreements. We had done everything together from the time we were in the nursery to the time we had enrolled into this godforsaken war.

But no longer. I come home alone. Bearing with me the image of his broken body as it lay strewn across the road. An unexpected attack; and the blinding faith that God would protect him as he reached for the young child. Both of them thrown back high as the explosion rent the air; leaving behind it the sickly smell of death as the dust settled on the debris.

Our childhood innocence is gone. Our utter belief in our youth and strength vanquished. I have come home to lay to rest my demons and nightmares. And while I heal I hope to feel the nearness of my long gone companion in the fields we once both so loved.”